When the surreal circus comes to town Inbal Pinto Dance Company | New Victoria Theatre, Woking By Nadine Meisner 05 April 2001

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Oysters may be a non-kosher food, but as a theatre metaphor devised by Israel's Inbal Pinto Dance Company they are full of visual pearls. Oyster, the company's second show to reach Britain, transports you into a fantastical time-loop, deep in the geography of the mind, where shadowy figures perform a succession of numbers that might belong to a surreal circus or dumb show.

Israeli choreographer Inbal Pinto combines the oddities of a freak show and the soaring playfulness of the Cirque du Soleil with the winsomeness of street performance to create the darkly mirthful ``Oyster,'' a work receiving its New England premiere this week at the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in Becket.

The piece opens as a petite dancer, holding her left leg aloft in a standing split, hops forward nonchalantly on her right foot, her clownish little tutu bouncing, her shadow growing larger behind her with each step. Once downstage, she switches legs and heads back, passing a tall man with two heads and four arms.

When did the prime minister and his cabinet last see a concert, a play, or a new Israeli movie? By Nachman Shai for Globes online (Israel)

Last Friday, I went to see “Boobies”, the new production by the Inbal Pinto Dance Company, directed by Avshalom Pollak. The Tel Aviv Center for the Performing Arts was crowded with young people, even very young people, who chose to spend Friday with one of Israel’s best dance troupes. The performance, pleasing enough in and of itself, was particularly heartwarming under the circumstances. You’d think that, at a time like this, with battles raging, culture would fade away; well, here it was, holding its head high.

The flowering of dance in Israel is something special.Alongside troupes like the Batsheva Dance Company and the Kibbutz Dance Company, dozens of choreographers and hundreds of dancers are developing. Once a year, at the Suzanne Dellal Center for Dance and Theater, when they feature their best productions, they achieve international exposure.

That sense of unease began with the sound of the wind, blowing across a vast, deserted space. As the twilight glow came up on Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak’s “Oyster,” a little shiver went down my spine.

Outside of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, crowds of people were lolling in the green lawn, enjoying the warm sunny afternoon, but the less fortunate they, because those of us who had wandered into Pinto’s dark cavern of circus freaks were in for a wild ride.

Pinto, who is a former member of Israel’s acclaimed Batsheva Company, incorporates many familiar theatrical touches into her sideshow – the white-face makeup, zany costumes, a bare stage framed by naked light bulbs that suggest a dilapidated carnival – but the pleasure of “Oyster” is not that it breaks new ground, but in how expertly she and collaborator Pollak have put the elements together.

We’ve seen duets with aerial work before, but rarely done with such ease and insouciance. Dancers have been strung and manipulated like puppets before, but rarely with such creepy implications. But “Oyster’s” cavalcade of sideshow freaks displays a canny understanding of the real art of pantomime, and though it has been categorized by presenter San Francisco Performances as “dance,” it’s really a skillful theater piece.

The twelve members of the troupe take on personas that defy adequate description, ranging from circus animals – performing dogs, elephants, etc. – to a double headed barker, whom I found to be as disturbing as “Laughing Sal,” the coin-operated doll that used to stand in San Francisco’s Musee Mecanique. The music runs from Astor Piazzolla to Yma Sumac, from old standards to throaty humming, many of which never before seemed so sinister or unfamiliar.

Faded carnies every one, the characters run through their paces, and at the end of the day, doff their accoutrements and sit down to amuse each other. The weary atmosphere has a tincture of forlorn sadness about it – though not of the self-pitying variety, but rather the kind that made characters like Emmett Kelly’s Weary Willie or Chaplin’s Little Tramp so compelling. Why do we watch them? Why do we watch sideshows? Is it that they evoke macabre fascination or empathy? And, Pinto seems to ask, what does that say about us?

Thanks for the review mehunt. I really enjoyed this performance. I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy it as I tend not to like Euro-circus dance. (So, I just made up that dance form.) The dancers/performers were top-notch and so well rehearsed. I'm still marvelling at the dancers who performed with ribbons attached to their hands and toes. They kept the tension on the ribbons so well I thought that the ribbons were sticks. Quite amazing. I thought they used their costumes and props well, including suits without arms. The limitations the costumes provided made for very interesting movement.

Welcome, joe and thanks for your comments. I enjoyed it a lot too, although I cheated a little and had seen a tape. Still, it was MUCH better live than on video, where you didn't get the full effect of the sounds. I agree about the performers -- a very impressive group!

I had the good fortune to see this group perform in New Haven, CT a couple years ago. Anyone know where I might find a tour schedule so I can plan to see them the next time they on in my Washington, DC neighborhood?

The company is in the San Francisco Bay Area this week. A review from the SF Chronicle.

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Dance review: Inbal Pinto's shaky 'Shaker'

Rachel Howard, Chronicle Dance Correspondent

Monday, October 13, 2008

A beautiful woman, a creepy old man and a mime dance a cha-cha while beefcakes in mesh bodysuits twirl toy-size parasols. If only the absurdist humor in the Inbal Pinto Dance Company's "Shaker" were actually funny.

The Israeli troupe, which made its second Yerba Buena Center for the Arts appearance under the auspices of San Francisco Performances on Saturday, has two co-artistic directors. Inbal Pinto, choreographer, is a product of the kinesthetically spectacular BatSheva Dance Company. Avshalom Pollak is an actor and director, presumably more responsible for the theatrical elements of the pair's evening-length collaborations, for which they also create all sets and costumes.

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